Compare And Contrast The Evolution Of Music In The 1940s And 1950's

While the characteristics of music changed significantly in the 1940’s and 1950’s with the development of electronics we need to ask: what is music? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary music is “a : the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity, b: vocal, instrumental, or mechanical sounds having rhythm, melody, or harmony” and the Oxford dictionary states that music is “vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion,” by these definitions you cannot support Cage’s three-movement 4’33” as a musical piece, there is no order, rhythm, melody or harmony to the sound of the audiences; it is mere noise.

He sat at the piano, and lift the lid of the piano later he closed the lid of the piano, then later again he lifted the lid and after some time he closed the lid a final time and rose from the piano, without a note being played, although he timed the lengths on a stopwatch while turning the pages of the score. While nobody produces sound deliberately, there were sounds in the concert hall. It is these sounds, unpredictable and unintentional, that are to be regarded as constituting the music in this piece. On the contrary you may possibly be able to argue that Cage’s pieces Radio Music may be music as there is some rhythm to those, although the sound is not reproducible from concert to concert; it could be classified as chance music. Radio Music, however does not meet the definition set by Oxford dictionary for music as there is no vocal or instrumental sound, there is no harmony or expression of